In the winter of 1662, the legal machinery of early modern Scotland turned its attention toward the Isle of Bute, where Marie McKaw became the subject of formal proceedings. Recorded in the judicial archives under case reference C/JO/3258, Marie was brought before the authorities on the 14th of February. In a period defined by heightened sensitivity to allegations of malevolent sorcery, her residence on Bute placed her within a social environment where such accusations were frequently mediated by local kirk sessions and the central justiciary.
The documentation surrounding Marie’s experience—cataloged under trial reference T/JO/1915—marks her transition from a member of the Bute community to a defendant within the Scottish legal system. While the surviving records are sparse, they establish the definitive chronology of her interaction with the law during that February. As was common in these mid-seventeenth-century proceedings, the formal charges brought against Marie would have necessitated her appearance before local or itinerant officials, marking a profound and life-altering moment in the history of the island’s judicial record.